Ski season boosts holiday numbers in August

August was a boom month for holidaymakers coming to New Zealand according to the latest International Travel and Migration figures.

More than 116,000 visitorsholidayed inNew Zealandlast month(up 6% on August 2016).

For the year ending August 2017,holiday numbers have reached record levels with1,912,400 holiday visitors travelling here (up 10.6%onYE August2016).

Australians made up the majority of holidaymakers with 46,448 flying acrossthe ditch (up 5.1% on last year – manyfor ski holidays. Encouragingly, August saw a huge increase in the number of Chinesevisitors holidaying here (21,056; up10.3% onAugust 2016– although still 3.5% down YE August2016), andJapan also had a month of strong growth after severalquiet months (with holiday arrivals up7.4%on August 2016).

There was a drop in thetotalnumber of visitors from the USA and Canada (down 22.9% and 6.5% respectively,largely due to the hiatus of American Airlines and United Airlines services between the US and New Zealandcompared to last year).

In a quirky first, therewas a 225% jump in the number ofIndonesianholidaymakerstravelling herein August(1,616).

Overall 233,991 international visitors arrived here in August (up 6% on August 2016) bringing the total number of international visitors for the year-ending August 2017 to 3,670,087 (up9.3% on YE August 2016).